On my list of handy things to have, “just in case”, are air rifles. I have 5 of them. One is garbage, several are decent at best, and one is pretty good. All are off the shelf, no modifications, just stock air rifles. I’ve thought about having my best gun, a Gamo Big Cat, sent in to be tweaked, but the service costs more than the gun did. I may do it eventually, but for now, I’m happy with it as is, it serves its purpose well.

What purpose you say?

I live in town. Gun ranges are scarce locally. And the ones we do have a re expensive. For me, the days of going into the back yard and shooting whatever I want, whenever I wanted are gone. So I have to stay sharp with my shooting skills in other ways. Airsoft and paintball are options that I pursue from time to time. But neither offers anything other than “play shooting”. An air rifle can be used for both target shooting and, though limited, hunting. This opens up options unavailable to me otherwise.

Relatively quiet, powerful enough to bring down small game, a quality air rifle is almost the perfect urban stealth method of “procuring and preventing”. Squirrels in the stewpot and raccoons in the garden, an air rifle can manage both.

Hank Fannin wrote about it on his blog in more detail. He includes some charts for required stopping power for hunting, some good stuff. Read about it here:
http://greenearthsurvivalschool.blogspot.com/2012/01/air-guns.html

On the Prep List, I’d list a quality air gun (and lots of ammo!) as a severe want if you already own firearms, or a need if you do not.